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Who we are

With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

Liangzhi You

Liangzhi You is a Senior Research Fellow and theme leader in the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit, based in Washington, DC. His research focuses on climate resilience, spatial data and analytics, agroecosystems, and agricultural science policy. Gridded crop production data of the world (SPAM) and the agricultural technology evaluation model (DREAM) are among his research contributions. 

Where we work

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Where we work

IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

IFPRI Regional Programs

IFPRI Country Programs

Research by country and region

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partnerships

CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), led by IWMI, is dedicated to making agri-food systems environmentally and socially sustainable. They do so by taking scientific findings from across disciplines and applying this knowledge to effect large scale changes in how agricultural interventions and investments are made. WLE also works to increase the resilience of communities and farmers who are part of these systems.

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Projects

Scaling up experiential learning tools for sustainable water governance in India

Scaling up experiential learning tools for sustainable water governance in India

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Gender-Sensitive Risks and Options Assessment for Decision Making (ROAD) to Support Work in Freedom Phase 2 (WiF-2)

Gender-Sensitive Risks and Options Assessment for Decision Making (ROAD) to Support Work in Freedom Phase 2 (WiF-2)

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Ethiopian Energy Development Strategy

Ethiopian Energy Development Strategy

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Publications

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Working Paper

Irrigation schemes in Ethiopia’s Awash River Basin: An examination of physical, knowledge, and governance infrastructures

2024Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Yimam, Seid; Arega, Tiruwork; Alemu, Tekie; Gonfa, Kidist H.; Ringler, Claudia
Details

Irrigation schemes in Ethiopia’s Awash River Basin: An examination of physical, knowledge, and governance infrastructures

Using a representative sample of irrigation schemes, the study documents the physical, knowledge, and governance infrastructures of irrigation schemes in Ethiopia’s most intensively used river basin, the Awash. The findings show that about 20 percent of the equipped area of irrigation schemes in the basin is not being irrigated, while the number of actual beneficiaries on average exceeds the number of planned beneficiaries. The results also show significant knowledge gaps among irrigation scheme managers, extension agents, and leaders of water users’ associations (WUAs): 96 percent of them do not know the total water withdrawals or the irrigation water requirement per season. About 14 percent of the surveyed irrigation schemes have neither traditional water committees nor WUAs, and only 21 percent are organized in legally registered WUAs despite a substantial number of identified benefits of these organizations. Moreover, only 58 out of 489 irrigation schemes have women committee members. Many schemes lack a clear strategy for covering maintenance costs: almost 40 percent of schemes collect contributions from members only when the system fails, while 17 percent report no contributions for maintenance at all suggesting considerable risk of system deterioration and failure. The results challenge some of the assumptions about irrigation infrastructure in Ethiopia and confirm and quantify other assumptions in the literature.

Year published

2024

Authors

Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Yimam, Seid; Arega, Tiruwork; Alemu, Tekie; Gonfa, Kidist H.; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Mekonnen, Dawit K.; Yimam, Seid; Arega, Tiruwork; Alemu, Tekie; Gonfa, Kidist H.; and Ringler, Claudia. 2024. Irrigation schemes in Ethiopia’s Awash River Basin: An examination of physical, knowledge, and governance infrastructures. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2287. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Irrigation Schemes; Infrastructure; Awash River; River Basins; Advisory Officers; Water User Associations; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Small-scale irrigation protects farmers from climate-extreme events: Insights from the 2015/2016 ENSO in Ethiopia

2024Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Mekonnen, Yalew; Warner, James; Ringler, Claudia
Details

Small-scale irrigation protects farmers from climate-extreme events: Insights from the 2015/2016 ENSO in Ethiopia

The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) weather event of 2015/16 caused severe drought conditions in northern and central Ethiopia affecting the welfare of millions of farmers in late 2015 and early 2016. Using nationally representative panel data collected in 2012 and 2016 and recent advances in the difference-indifferences literature, this paper explores the effects of the 2015/16 drought and the potential role of irrigation in reducing the adverse effects of the drought. We find that the drought caused, on average, a 37 percent reduction in net annual crop income, an 8 percent decline in area cultivated, a 3 percent decline in household dietary diversity score, and a 10 percent decline in the share of harvest sold for rainfed farmers. On the other hand, irrigating farmers affected by the drought managed to increase their daily expenditures by 72 percent of their average daily food expenditure in the pre-drought period, and maintained their net crop income, size of cultivated land, household dietary diversity, and share of harvest sold to the market. Overall, while rainfed agricultural producers suffered sharp declines in welfare, those farmers with access to irrigation maintained their economic status. The results suggest that irrigation protected farmers from the adverse effects of the 2015/16 ENSO event and given increasing climate variability in Ethiopia, the government should intensify its investment and support to irrigation development in the country.

Year published

2024

Authors

Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Mekonnen, Yalew; Warner, James; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Mekonnen, Dawit K.; Mekonnen, Yalew; Warner, James; and Ringler, Claudia. 2024. Small-scale irrigation protects farmers from climate-extreme events: Insights from the 2015/2016 ENSO in Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2242. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/139780

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Drought; Irrigation; Resilience; Farmers

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Intervening in complex agrifood systems: Assessing outcomes of a multistakeholder approach in central Mozambique

2023Falk, Thomas; Kee-Tui, Sabine Homann; Hauser, Michael; Sixpence, Claudio; Quembo, Carlos João
Details

Intervening in complex agrifood systems: Assessing outcomes of a multistakeholder approach in central Mozambique

Inclusive co-design of system innovations incorporates diverse perspectives and bodies of knowledge that can generate solutions that fit well in a local context and over time influence the socio-technical regime. In operationalizing system transformation-oriented co-design processes, research and development actors have experimented in recent decades with the role of multistakeholder approaches. A specific application of such approaches in the agrifood system context are Agricultural Innovation Platforms (AIPs). Despite the growing application of AIPs and similar approaches, documentation of AIP achievements and assessment of their outcomes beyond the lifetime of the program are rare. We present an approach for integrating the logic of outcome harvesting into the process of AIP facilitation. We also document the outcomes from an AIP approach implemented in a mixed crop-livestock farming system in central Mozambique, using a mixed-methods approach. Our results indicate likely changes in behavior and behavioral drivers associated with the AIP approach. We also share experiences on methodological challenges in assessing outcomes of AIP processes. We hope that our results increase development actors’ confidence in applying AIPs at a larger scale.

Year published

2023

Authors

Falk, Thomas; Kee-Tui, Sabine Homann; Hauser, Michael; Sixpence, Claudio; Quembo, Carlos João

Citation

Falk, Thomas; Kee-Tui, Sabine Homann; Hauser, Michael; Sixpence, Claudio; and Quembo, Carlos João. 2023. Intervening in complex agrifood systems: Assessing outcomes of a multistakeholder approach in central Mozambique. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2233. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137087

Country/Region

Mozambique

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Southern Africa; Eastern Africa; Capacity Development; Agriculture; Mixed Farming; Integrated Crop-livestock Systems; Social Networks; Innovation Platforms

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137087 Source record

Project

Low-Emission Food Systems

Record type

Working Paper

Events

Boosting synergies and managing trade-offs in food systems
IFPRI Program/Country Event

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October 21, 2021, 8:00 – 9:00 am

Boosting synergies and managing trade-offs in food systems

Virtual Event: OCT 21, 2021 – 08:00 AM to 09:00 AM EDT. This webinar discusses evidence, actions and lessons learned on how to leverage biodiversity in our food systems for people and planet. 

Accelerating clean energy access in rural areas
IFPRI Program/Country Event

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October 5, 2021, 8:00 – 9:00 am

Accelerating clean energy access in rural areas

Virtual Event: OCT 5, 2021 – 08:00 AM to 09:00 AM EDT. This webinar will present research that can help countries enhance smallholder access to clean energy and address climate adaptation/ mitigation challenges. 

Migration and Gender Dynamics in Irrigation Governance in Nepal
IFPRI Program/Country Event

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November 25, 2020, 8:00 – 9:30 pm

Migration and Gender Dynamics in Irrigation Governance in Nepal

Widespread male migration from rural areas is one of the most important forces shaping agrarian transformation in Nepal. One particularly important area affected is the governance and management of local public goods, especially irrigation systems. Given the crucial role of irrigation in agricultural productivity and food security, attention to gender in irrigation governance is not […]

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Blogs

Accelerating rural energy access in the race to net zero carbon emissions
IFPRI Blog
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January 07, 2022

Accelerating rural energy access in the race to net zero carbon emissions

By Marilia Magalhaes and Claudia Ringler

Bringing key innovations to smallholders.

A behavioral perspective on improving water governance in India
IFPRI Blog
 | 
December 29, 2021

A behavioral perspective on improving water governance in India

By Thomas Falk, Dennis Schüpf, Wei Zhang, and Ilkhom Soliev

Insights into achieving sustainable irrigation.

Optimizing seasonal-spatial crop production to improve its economic-environmental performance in Bangladesh
IFPRI Blog
 | 
November 17, 2021

Optimizing seasonal-spatial crop production to improve its economic-environmental performance in Bangladesh

By Man Li, Zhe Guo, and Wei Zhang

The advantages of science-based land use planning.

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